America in 1896

 

American Flag

Freedom on Paper, Control in Practice

When I look around at America in 1896, I see a country that prides itself on liberty. The Civil War ended 31 years ago, slavery was outlawed, and the Constitution now promises equality for all. On paper, it sounds like progress. But in my opinion, that promise feels hollow. I see that, especially here in the South, almost none of that freedom is being lived.

Sometimes I tell myself that America has moved forward but then when you look back through we see the truth: the old ways never really left.

A Black sharecropping family in the South, 1890s,
 free in name but still trapped in poverty and dependence.

Economic Reality: Slavery’s Afterlife

After the war, freed Black families were told they could work for themselves. In reality, most entered into sharecropping a system that kept them tied to white landowners through debt. A typical deal worked like this, a white landowner let a Black family farm a small piece of land. In return, that family had to hand over a large share of the crop at harvest. But the landowner also controlled the seeds, the tools and even the store where the family bought food all “on credit.”

When I learned about this system, I couldn’t help but feel that it was slavery dressed in new clothing. The books were always kept by the landowner and the debt was always higher than the crop was worth. Debt meant you couldn’t leave. This was called debt peonage or debt slavery and it trapped families year after year.

So yes, the chains were gone. But poverty, dependency and control stayed. A Black worker in 1896 might be “free” under the law, but he was still working to make the same white man rich.

In some places, it went even further. Black men were arrested for the smallest things vagrancy, talking back, or simply being in the wrong place and then leased out to private businesses as punishment. When I discovered the details of this “convict leasing” system, I was shocked. It was free labor for companies, brutal work for the men, and profit for the state. Historians rightly call it an extension of slavery.

Enslaved labourers harvesting
sugarcane on a Southern plantation

Violence and Terror: Policing “Order”

Another part of daily life, and one I can’t ignore, is fear. White mobs carry out lynchings kidnappings, torture, and public killings meant to remind the entire Black community of its place. Between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and the mid-1900s, more than 4,000 Black people were lynched in the South. Most killers were never punished, sheriffs looked away, juries refused to convict.

When I first read the reports from the Equal Justice Initiative, I felt sick. These were not secret crimes they were public events. People brought their families to watch. The goal wasn’t justice, it was control.

When a government refuses to protect its people, freedom is an illusion. It becomes survival under constant threat.

Voting Rights: Silencing Black Citizens

The Fifteenth Amendment, ratified in 1870, said the right to vote could not be denied because of race. On paper, that sounded noble. But in practice, I’ve seen the South rewrite the rules to get around it.

Formerly enslaved people
in the post Civil War South,

States introduced poll taxes, literacy tests, and “grandfather clauses” clever tricks that blocked Black voters while keeping white voters safe. Illiterate whites could vote if their grandfathers had, but since enslaved people could never vote, Black men failed the test before it began.

When I looked into Mississippi’s constitution of 1890, I realised how openly it was designed to keep power in white hands. Other states quickly followed.

By 1896, I could see that most Black Southerners had lost the right to vote without a single law saying “no Black man may vote.” It was all done through paperwork, taxes, and fear.

Everyday Life: Separation and Control

Even outside politics, separation rules every part of life. Lawmakers have made it clear that Black and white citizens should not share schools, restaurants, train cars, or even hospitals. They say it’s to preserve “peace.” I say it’s to preserve power.

Everywhere, there were message written on signs and in laws: one race belongs above the other. Black children grow up believing they are second-class. White children grow up believing that’s the natural order.

AI disclosure: Parts of this assignment were developed with the assistance of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. I used the tool to turn my script for my presentation into a 550 word minimum blog post. I also used it to help with organising historical information, improving clarity and grammar, and finding credible sources such as PBS, the Equal Justice Initiative, and the National Archives. All ideas were reviewed, edited, and finalised by me to ensure accuracy and originality. I added my opinion to every section to make it more of a personal blog.